Charitable organizations fill an important niche in society, allowing people to help take care of the sick, the poor and the needy, as well as advancing medicine, science and public welfare. Without the work of charitable organizations, the government would be forced to spend much more time, money, and energy on public welfare causes. In order for charitable organizations to exist, there has to be a method for obtaining funding. Often, a large portion of a charitable group's work involves fundraising.
Raising money in the public and corporate sectors requires advertising to make the charitable organization and its cause known to the public. Advertising is often an expensive and time consuming ordeal. One of the most successful methods used to advertise is through telemarketing. However, telemarketing is still somewhat inefficient and can be impersonal. Members of the public must be contacted individually over the phone, often at inconvenient times. Further, telemarketing has become so burdensome to the public that laws have recently been enacted prohibiting most telemarketers from calling people that have signed on to a national ‘Do Not Call List.’ The list limits the effectiveness of telemarketing.
One of the keys to successful fundraising is to limit the percentage of overhead required to raise the funds. While it may be possible to raise funds by throwing an elaborate gala with dinner and entertainment, such extravagance may leave few funds left for the charitable organization after the bills for the gala are paid. Even basic fundraising methods such as telemarketing, as previously discussed, can require a large percentage of the overall contributions to be re-invested to pay for the fundraising.